Modern websites allow a user to accomplish a myriad of tasks online from the user's computing device whether the device be a laptop, desktop, smartphone, tablet, or otherwise. These tasks may include retrieving information, purchasing items, creating content, communicating with other users, or any other online activity. While a website allows a user to accomplish one or more tasks, the website does not allow for multiple users to have the same experience without those users present at the same computing device. In particular, even though multiple users can each direct their respective computing devices to retrieve the same website, those users will each be interacting with a separate and independent instance of the website. Therefore, if one of the users interacts with the website on his or her computing device, the interactions of that user have no effect on the experience of the other users. Moreover, the devices of each user may be different types of devices, may be running different operating systems, and/or rendering the website using different web browsers, which may cause the website to be displayed differently on each device.
Overview
Embodiments described herein provide systems and method for allowing multiple devices to browse the same instance of a website. In a particular embodiment, a method provides receiving an instruction in the co-browsing system to initiate a co-browsing session for a website with a first client and a second client. The method further provides acquiring the website from a server that hosts the website and rendering the website in the co-browsing system to generate a rendered image of the website. The method further provides transferring a first copy of the rendered image to the first client and a second copy of the rendered image to the second client.